Old saying about "life imitating art" has a rather sinister
meaning for the author of this review. Reason for that is IN
THE NAME OF THE FATHER, 1993 film directed by famed Irish
director Jim Sheridan. Due to some bizarre, hardly
believable and now totally forgotten circumstances that
dealt with internal politics of his country, the author of
this review, in rather short, but extremely unpleasant
period of his life, had to endure the ordeal in some
frightening details similar to the one experienced by the
movie protagonist. To make things even more sinister, my
ordeal had practically coincided with the production of the
film and later, while IN THE NAME OF FATHER reached Croatian
cinemas, I had to wait for the video distribution in order
to come to grips with the dark and traumatic subject of the
movie. The most sinister fact remains that this film was
actually based on the true story.

The movie begins in 1974, during the peak of IRA terrorist
campaign. Gerry Conlon (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) is a
young petty thief from Catholic portion of Belfast who
doesn't care about politics, but that doesn't stop him from
getting into trouble, both with British police and IRA. In
order to save his life, his estranged father Giuseppe (Pete
Postlethwaite) sends him to London where Gerry continues his
life of squatting, doing drugs and comitting petty crime. In
the meantime, IRA bomb exploded in Guilford pub, leaving
five innocent people killed, and police is given broad
authorities in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.
For the task force led by Robert Dixon (Corin Redgrave),
Gerry, his countryman Paul Hill (John Lynch) and couple of
their friends represent the ideal suspects. They are all
arrested, and threatened, harassed and tortured until they
finally confess the crime they didn't commit. That
confession sends not only Gerry to the prison for the rest
of his life, but his own father is implicated and forced to
share the prison cell with him. At first, Gerry is
embittered and full of self-pitty, but seeing the stoical
and moral example of his father, he begins to change and
actually fight for his freedom. The defence lawyer Gareth
Pierce (Emma Thompson) begins long legal battle in order to
overturn the conviction.

Although the movie was based on Gerry Conlon's
autobiographical book, and although his premiere coincided
with the first major breakthrough in Northern Ireland's
peace process, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER actually is not the
political film in the strictest of sense. The Troubles and
real life tragedy of the innocent people who were caught in
the crossfire serve only as a background for more intimate,
universal and apolitical story about two Conlons. Screenplay
by Terry George (that actually took many liberties with real
life for dramatic purposes) puts the real emphasis on the
relationship between Gerry and his father Giueseppe - and
the great emotional gap between them, the gap that would be
bridged under the cruellest of circumstances. Unfortunately,
politics does play a role in this film, and in that regard,
screenplay is somewhat weaker than when it deals with
Conlons. Sheridan does indeed give a sense of sad Northern
Ireland's reality in a very energetic and powerful riot
scene in the beginning, but the rest of this two hour film
barely rises to that standard. The second part of the film,
that actually covers Conlon's prison years, is more
formulaic and sometimes even cliched. The only exception is
the "fire tears" scene, but, although powerful, it doesn't
carry the film.

What actually carries IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER are the
superb acting perfomances. Daniel Day-Lewis is simply
splendid in the very demanding role of the careless, stupid
and unsympathetic youth that actually changes into strong,
intelligent crusader for his own cause. But the real gem in
this movie is powerful and unforgettable performance by Pete
Postlethwaite, character actor whose moving portrayal of
Giuseppe as quiet, simple but morally strong man is actually
overshadowing Lewis. Other actors are also good, including
Emma Thompson, whose role of defence attorney should have
been expanded.

The main problem I have with IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER,
problem that, I must admit, has something to do with my
experience, is in the fact that movie doesn't actually
tackle some important and universal question. For example,
story of Gerry Conlon could be used to illustrate how frail
are such noble concepts like "human rights" and "due
process" even in countries that pride themselves with
centuries of democratic standards. It could also illustrate
how powerless individual can be when he is picked by
all-powerful state, and that, under the certain
circumstances, even the Western democracies can be as mean
towards the people as totalitarian regimes. IN THE NAME OF
FATHER, by concentrating mostly on an interesting, but in a
global scale rather local issue of Northern Ireland, and on
other level, personal issue of Conlons, failed to explore
such areas. Which is pitty, because this film, although
still being good, had capacity to be really great.